Narratives: Indian defence spending is among the highest in the world. India plans to overhaul its Air Force by 2020. The PAF doesn’t have such funding. How do you maintain a balance?
ACM: Overall Indian defence spending is seven to eight times more than ours, as they keep their defence-related research and development funds under a separate head.
They have signed a deal to buy the French Rafale, which is absolutely a four-plus generation aircraft. They have the Sukhoi Su-30 MKIs. It is a potent aircraft. I, myself, have flown the Su-30 two or three times and found it very capable. But we have developed the JF-17 Thunder. We cannot call it parity, but we have a core structure, which doesn’t prevent us from launching an air campaign. It is all about your asset deployment. However, in future – in the next 10 years down the line – if we don’t induct fifth-generation aircraft, then the disparity will increase. Indians are working on a fifth-generation aircraft.
Pakistan definitely has to induct new aircraft. We have both Chinese and Russian options.
Narratives: India is inducting US technology, which is now difficult for Pakistan to acquire. What are the options?
ACM: That’s a difficulty, but one has to adjust according to the international environment. The advantage we have is that the JF-17 production has given a major impetus to our engineers and technicians. We are integrating our technology with friendly countries, including Turkey. We are thinking of producing the next-generation aircraft by pooling resources with them. For this, the basic framework and agreements have been made.
The baseline is that we have to develop high-end technology ourselves. Of course, the American and Western technologies are better, but if it is unavailable, then we have to make the best use of our own capabilities and our friends.
Narratives: So should we call restrictions on technology transfer by the West a blessing in disguise for Pakistan?
ACM: In a way yes, but even when there were no restrictions and our relations with the United States were good, we worked very hard on the JF-17 project. And I am proud to say that it is comparable to any fourth generation aircraft. We have been steadily focusing on developing indigenous capabilities. It is not when we face sanctions alone that we think of developing indigenous technology.
Narratives: Are you looking for other options after Washington refused to fund its promised eight F-16s?
ACM: These F-16s had to be purchased on shared funding. Operation Zarb-e-Azb remains our war, but the Americans had been asking for a North Waziristan operation for years. I consider it a breach of promise on their part because the United States promised to co-fund this operation (as part of its foreign military assistance). They didn’t adhere to this promise, which is very sad. As a responsible nation, you don’t do this. American funding for F-16s would have been a win-win situation for both.
While that happened, we kept looking at other options. I think we have some of the leading options both in China and Russia. We are also collaborating with Turkey for developing a next generation aircraft.
Having said this, we still desire a very good relationship with the United States at the national level. The challenges are too big in this region (for both the countries). We have to fight terrorism together and it is a shared objective. It’s the question of giving Pakistan the capacity and capability to fight this threat. A myopic approach and restrictions won’t be helpful.